Gestural development of chimpanzees in the wild: the impact of interactional experience

Fröhlich, Marlen; Müller, Gudrun; Zeiträg, Claudia; Wittig, Roman M.; Pika, Simone

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.12.018

Cited by 46 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 66 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Moreover, gestural production for play solicitation does not appear to differ profoundly in interactions with siblings (maternal kin) as compared to those with non‐kin (Fröhlich, Wittig et al., ). In a previous study, we thus argued that interactional experiences beyond the mother–infant relationship might play a larger role in communicative development than hitherto acknowledged (Fröhlich et al., ). Hence, here we also wanted to test whether the interaction partner (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…We specifically focused on communicative behaviour that elicited the transfer of food (‘food sharing’; Fröhlich et al., ), the initiation of maternal transport or joint travel (‘joint travel’; Fröhlich, Wittig et al., ) and the solicitation of social play (‘social play’; Fröhlich, Wittig et al., ). A total of 826 high‐quality recordings of infant‐initiated interactions in these three different contexts (food sharing: N = 330, joint travel: N = 122; social play: N = 374) were coded using the program Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 version 4.2.1.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only by observing how communicative behaviour unfolds throughout ontogeny can we draw inferences about the extent to which communication relies on input from the socio‐ecological environment. Given the growing evidence for a strong impact of social experiences on socio‐cognitive (for reviews see Bard & Leavens, ; Leavens & Bard, ) and communicative development in great apes (Bard et al., ; Fröhlich, Müller, Zeiträg, Wittig, & Pika, ; Katsu, Yamada, & Nakamichi, ; Laporte & Zuberbühler, ; Snowdon & Hausberger, ), it is vital to understand the role of learning processes for signal usage (Fröhlich et al., ; Higham & Hebets, ). In his pioneering studies, Plooij (, ) described the naturally occurring communicative interactions between mother–infant dyads of eastern chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii ) at the Gombe community, Tanzania.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We aimed to expand Plooij's (, ) early descriptive work by conducting the first systematic, quantitative study on behavioural markers of intentional communication and taking into account potential within‐species variability. Recent work on chimpanzees living in different study populations has shown that social factors such as context, familiarity and social bond (Fröhlich et al., ; Fröhlich, Wittig, & Pika, ; Luef & Pika, ; Roberts & Roberts, ; Schel et al., ), and also individual or demographic factors (mother's experience in rearing offspring, sex and study site) can have a profound influence on signal production (Fröhlich et al., ; Fröhlich, Wittig et al., , ). We therefore need more systematic data on the communicative behaviour of great apes in the wild to better understand how communicative development relates to social opportunities in the environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We observed communicative interactions during three frequently occurring communicative contexts—food sharing, mother–infant joint travel, and social play. These contexts were selected since they occur frequently and comprise fruitful candidates for communicative exchanges (Fröhlich et al., ; Goodall, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The ontogeny of intentional communication in chimpanzees in the wild

Fröhlich

Wittig

Pika

2018

Developmental Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The onset of intentional communication in children's first year of life represents a major milestone in human cognitive development. Similarly, it is well established that our closest living relatives, the great apes, communicate with signals characterized by at least first-order intentionality. Despite the well-documented influence of developmental experiences on socio-cognitive abilities in apes, the developmental trajectory of intentional signal use as well as effects of social exposure remain poorly understood under naturalistic conditions. Here, we addressed these issues by studying the ontogeny of intentional communication in chimpanzee infants of two subspecies (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii/verus) and communities living in their natural environments. Overall, we found that gestures and bimodal signal combinations were most commonly accompanied by markers of intentional communication: audience checking, persistence to the goal, and sensitivity to recipient's attentional state. Within individuals, the proportion of communicative behaviours associated with goal persistence and sensitivity to attention increased with age. Cross-sectional comparisons between infants revealed an age effect on the use of audience checking. Context, interaction partner and site affiliation affected the production of specific markers irrespective of infants' age. The present study provided hitherto undocumented evidence for the development of three important markers of intentional communication in great apes. Moreover, our results suggest that social exposure impacts early intentional signal use.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The ontogeny of intentional communication in chimpanzees in the wild

Fröhlich

Wittig

Pika

2018

Developmental Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Connecting primate gesture to the evolutionary roots of language: A systematic review

Rodrigues¹,

Santos²,

Veppo

et al. 2021

American J Primatol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Comparative psychology provides important contributions to our understanding of the origins of human language. The presence of common features in human and nonhuman primate communication can be used to suggest the evolutionary trajectories of potential precursors to language. However, to do so effectively, our findings must be comparable across diverse species. This systematic review describes the current landscape of data available from studies of gestural communication in human and nonhuman primates that make an explicit connection to language evolution. We found a similar number of studies on human and nonhuman primates, but that very few studies included data from more than one species. As a result, evolutionary inferences remain restricted to comparison across studies. We identify areas of focus, bias, and apparent gaps within the field. Different domains have been studied in human and nonhuman primates, with relatively few nonhuman primate studies of ontogeny and relatively few human studies of gesture form. Diversity in focus, methods, and socio‐ecological context fill important gaps and provide nuanced understanding, but only where the source of any difference between studies is transparent. Many studies provide some definition for their use of gesture; but definitions of gesture, and in particular, criteria for intentional use, are absent in the majority of human studies. We find systematic differences between human and nonhuman primate studies in the research scope, incorporation of other modalities, research setting, and study design. We highlight eight particular areas in a call to action through which we can strengthen our ability to investigate gestural communication's contribution within the evolutionary roots of human language.

show abstract

Communicative gestures in 7–12‐month infants: A phylogenetic comparative approach

Rodrigues

Marôco²,

Frota

2021

Infant and Child Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Different methodologies applied in human and non-human primate studies limit the comparisons that can be made.The early communicative gestures of 10 children between 7 and 12 months were analysed using a descriptive approach usually found in non-human primate studies.Silent-visual gestures were the most used, followed by con- Highlights• A descriptive and comparable approach to work on non-human primate gestures is used to study the early gestures in human infants.

show abstract

Gestural development of chimpanzees in the wild: the impact of interactional experience

Cited by 46 publications

References 66 publications

The ontogeny of intentional communication in chimpanzees in the wild

The ontogeny of intentional communication in chimpanzees in the wild

Connecting primate gesture to the evolutionary roots of language: A systematic review

Communicative gestures in 7–12‐month infants: A phylogenetic comparative approach

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About